Michael Steinhardt

A bowl full of lentils is the first thing that catches my eye among the tools and ancient ostracons on the worktable of antiquities conservator Marina Moustaka.

An 8.3-million-euro project bankrolled through the European Union's Recovery Fund is under way on the Aegean island of Naxos to create Greece's first state-run museum dedicated to ancient Cycladic art. 

Among other priceless exhibits, the Museum of Cycladic Culture will showcase idols seized by US authorities from American billionaire Michael Steinhardt in 2021. 

Dozens of looted antiquities seized from billionaire hedge fund founder Michael Steinhardt after a years long investigation have been returned to the people of Greece, prosecutors in New York announced on Feb. 23.

The artifacts included a sculpture of a young man from about 560 B.C., known as a kouros, that is worth $14 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.

After a two-year work of the Culture and Tourism Ministry's Anti-Smuggling Department, 14 works of Anatolian origin, stolen by the U.S. art collector Michael Steinhardt, one of the world's greatest collectors of antique art, have been handed over to the New York Consulate General by the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office for their return to Turkey.

A prominent U.S. art collector and billionaire philanthropist has returned 180 works of art and antiquities stolen from around the world -- some from ancient Greece -- that are estimated to be worth $70 million, Justice Department officials in New York said on Dec. 6.

A U.S. judge ruled on Sept. 7 that Turkey cannot recover a 6,000-year-old marble idol known as the "Guennol Stargazer" from Christie's and the hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt.

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